IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun.
2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Dr. Sourbhi Chaturvedi*, Rahul Barbar**
Abstract:- With an estimated one-billion membership, social
media websites have become a platform for corporations and
consumers to interact with each other in a lucid way. The
impact of social media on consumer behavior has been
massive. The research aims to identify the factors influencing
the impact of Social Media on Consumer Behavior on the basis
of demographic variables such as Age, Education etc. This
survey also indicates how often are the social networking
websites accessed and to what use they are put by the users on
the basis of demographic variables.
Keywords: Consumer Behavior, Social Media
I. INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior is the study of individuals,
groups, or organizations and the processes they use to
select, secure, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that
these processes have on the consumer and society. It
blends elements from psychology, sociology, social
anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand
the decision-making processes of buyers, both
individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of
individual consumers such as demographics and
behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's
wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer
from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and
society in general. In a consumer buying behavior, the
customer plays three distinct roles of user, payer and
buyer. Consumer behavior is very difficult to predict,
even for experts in the field. It is influenced by internal
conditions such as demographics, psychographics
(lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes,
beliefs, and feelings. Psychological factors include an
individuals motivation, perception, attitude and belief,
while personal factors include income level, personality,
age, occupation and lifestyle. Behavior can also be
affected by external influences, such as culture, sub-
culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity, and family, social
class, past experience reference groups, lifestyle, and
market mix factors.
Cultural Factors: - Cultural factors are divided into
three sub-factors i.e. Culture, Sub Culture and Social
Class. Culture is the set of basic values perceptions,
wants, and behaviors learned by a member of society from
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* Professor-LNCT-MER Dept. so_1919@yahoo.com
** Student, MBA, SVITS Indore,
mailrahul_y2j7@yahoo.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS)
family and other important institutions. Culture is the
most basic cause of a persons wants and behavior. Every
group or society has a culture, and cultural influences on
buying behavior may vary greatly from country to
country. Sub Culture is a group of people with shared
value systems based on common life experiences and
situations. Each culture contains smaller sub cultures a
group of people with shared value system based on
common life experiences and situations. Sub culture
includes nationalities, religions, racial group and
geographic regions. Many sub culture make up important
market segments and marketers often design products.
And Social Class is almost every society has some form
of social structure; social classes are societys relatively
permanent and ordered divisions whose members share
similar values, interests and behavior.
Social Factors: - A consumers behavior also is
influenced by social factors, such as Groups. In groups
two or more people interact to accomplish individual or
mutual goals. A persons behavior is influenced by many
small groups. Some are primary groups includes family,
friends, neighbors and coworkers. Some are secondary
groups, which are more formal and have less regular
interaction. These include organizations like religious
groups, professional association and trade unions.
Family: - Family members can strongly influence
buyer behavior. The family is the most important
consumer buying organization society and it has been
researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the
roles, and influence of the husband, wife and children on
the purchase of different products and services.
Roles and Status: - A person belongs to many groups,
family, clubs, and organizations. The persons position in
each group can be defined in terms of both role and status.
Personal Factors:-
Age and Life cycle Stage: - People change the goods
and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food,
clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related.
Buying is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle.
Occupation: - A persons occupation affects the goods
and services bought. Blue collar workers tend to buy more
rugged work clothes, whereas white-collar workers buy
more business suits. Thus, computer software companies
will design different products for brand managers,
accountants, engineers, lawyers, and doctors.
Economic situation:-A persons economic situation
will affect product choice
107
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life Style: - Life Style is a persons Pattern of living,
understanding these forces involves measuring
consumers major AIO dimensions i.e. activities (Work,
Personality and Self concept:-Each persons distinct
personality influences his or her buying behavior.
Personality refers to the unique psychological
characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting
responses to ones own environment.
Psychological Factors:-
Motivation :-Motive (drive) a need that is sufficiently
pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction of the
need
Perception :-The process by which people select,
Organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful
picture of the world.
Learning:-Changes in an individuals behavior arising
from experience.
Beliefs and attitudes :-Belief is a descriptive thought
that a person holds about something. Attitude, a Persons
consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations,
feelings, and tendencies towards an object or idea
Social Media can be defined as a group of Internet-
based applications that is build on the ideological and
technological foundations of the Web and that allow the
creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social
media is ubiquitously accessible, and enabled by scalable
communication techniques. As social media become more
and more prevalent, connecting people and facilitating the
exchange of information, consumer behavior is shifting.
Through social media, consumers now can easily watch
an interesting advertisement on YouTube, while posting
their own opinions on Twitter and sharing it with friends
on Facebook. Therefore, its necessary for the service
providers to understand how social media is affecting
current consumers and how they are going to react. In this
new era, one-way messages to the customers are simply
not enough. Todays customer can be heard loud and
clear. The customers voice can be heard everywhere,
including review websites, blogs, YouTube videos,
Tweets, Facebook updates, and other social media outlets.
And the companies have to pay attention because social
media is changing the way customers do business. Its
influencing the entire buying process. If they dont pay
attention, they risk losing customers.
The advent of social media has opened a new avenue of
marketing for corporations. The traditional 'word-of-
mouth' publicity has been replaced by the 'word-of-web',
as consumers are increasingly referring to social media
sites before making a purchase, greatly influencing
buying behavior. Though most companies these days
have an official website which has complete information
about their products, consumers usually engage with a
company after reading reviews and feedback from
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS)
hobbies, shopping, support etc) interest (Food, fashion,
family recreation) and opinions (about themselves,
Business, Products)
existing customers. Before buying a product, every
consumer wants to make sure that the product is the best
in its class, and offers good value for money.
Advertisements don't always give a fair idea, as almost
every company claims its product to be the very best. This
is where social media plays an important part in defining
consumer behavior. People who have already used the
product describe their experience - its strengths,
weaknesses etc., and this helps in disseminating
information. People are more likely to trust those who
give an impartial account of a product rather than a
celebrity who is paid to endorse the product. Social media
enables people from all over the world to form a
community of consumers, giving them the power to harm
or herald a company.
Consumers today serve as retailers on eBay, media
producer-directors on YouTube, authors on Wikipedia,
and critical reviewers on Amazon; they do all of this and
more on Facebook and MySpace. And they no longer
require their computer to do so through high-tech mobile
phones, portable computers and portals such as Twitter,
real-time information exchange has become an integral
element of consumer behavior anywhere and anytime.
User-generated content has become a mass phenomenon,
with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, and
Twitter. From the consumers viewpoints, its convenient
and easy to get the desired information from the enormous
database of social media. Only by a few clicks, users can
collect nice photos on Flickr, watch the latest drama on
YouTube or download the PDF file of an engaging novel
from BookCrossing. The best of all is that its all for free!
Therefore, its quite understandable that consumers would
search for freebies online first rather than directly go to
online or physical shops. For the retailers, the good news
is that its possible for a product or service becomes
popular overnight on social media, which reduces
tremendous marketing and promotion cost. However, the
downside is that it becomes more difficult for retailers to
manage the copyright-protected materials sharing
between the uncontrollable users.
Some of the main changes in consumer behavior as a
result of social media are that consumers have a bigger
voice these days. This is due to the fact that Social Media
is becoming a credible information provider for
consumers. Consumers now own increasingly
unrestricted time and space for sharing and possess access
to timely and frequent updates as per the change in the
market. Due to the transparency and the reliability of
social media, consumers became more and more powerful
than before. Most of the consumers would gather
information first on the social media before an important
purchasing. Plus, the ever-changing new technology, such
108
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
as smart phones, further enhanced this power, which
placed consumers in an advantageous position regarding
purchasing. To deal with this situation, the retailers
should dump the past preconceptions about the consumers
and the out-of-date marketing models. Instead, they have
to stand in the consumers shoes and try to engage as
many people as possible in an interactive way.
Customers are being influenced by social media and the
companies want them to be influenced positively, they
need to build a strong social media presence. That doesnt
mean spamming a bunch of people to build your followers
list. Building a strong social media presence requires
consistency. It requires actually engaging with your target
demographic, building relationships that help you earn
their trust and their business. And it requires having actual
goals and strategy for your social media campaign.
Know Your Segment -It is very essential for companies
to get an insight into the demographics of a website
regarding the income-group, age-group, class, ethnicity,
etc. When you have this information, you can decide
whether putting yourself up on that website would be
feasible for you or not.
Provide, Don't Sell-When you put your business on a
social media site, the onus should be on engaging a
consumer in an open conversation. Some of the most
popular websites, such as Facebook, allow you to create a
business profile, with an option that users can become
'fans'. The more 'fans' you are able to create, better the
dissemination of information related to your brand as each
time they log on, they will be updated with all the activity
around your brand. It is important that you use social
media in such a way that helps you in brand building.
When you build a strong foundation for your business,
and people are able to connect with you, it is very likely
that sales would follow automatically.
Pay Attention to Consumers' Opinion, ideas,
feedback. The discussion between customers gives you
some information on what they are expecting from the
brand. They can help with their opinion on how they
perceive you as a company, and what improvements can
be made to strengthen your brand. So, it is obvious that
the current trends in social media marketing indicate that
social media would be a force to reckon within the near
future. The bottom line is that a strong social media
presence can really make a difference to your business,
and considering the fact that thousands of people are
joining one or the other social networking site each day,
it is imperative that corporations use this medium
effectively. Of course, social media marketing does take
time. You cant scrap everything after just a few days
without getting results. Social media marketing takes
months. Consumers wont alter their behavior overnight.
So, you need to give your social media marketing efforts
time to start working. But if after a reasonable period of
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS)
time you arent seeing results, maybe its time to change
your strategy.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Malhotra et.al. (1997) provides guideline for the
designing of Virtual Community. The community was
studied through initiation, adoption, and successive
design changes. Issues and conflicts that arise in the
course of life of a virtual community were also traced. The
result of the study led to the creation of a leading website
that has attracted more than 300,000 visitors since its
inception. Typaldos (2000) has mentioned 12 elements of
Virtual Communities namely Purpose, Identity,
Reputation, Governance, Communication, Groups,
Environment, Boundaries, Trust, Exchange, Expression
and History. Maharag (2001) discovered that the Virtual
Community is a powerful medium for simulation and role
play. Blanchard and Markus (2002) explore the concept
of virtual community in a newsgroup. The VC has two
type of participation styles, active vs passive and public
vs private. They also describe the behavioral processes
viz. exchanging support, creating identities and making
identifications, and the production of trust that contribute
to the sense of virtual community.
Teo et,al.(2003) focuses on the virtual learning
communities. He examine the impact of information
accessibility and community adaptively on the
sustainability of virtual learning communities. The results
indicate that both information accessibility and
community adaptively have significant effects on user
perceptions and behavioral intention. Koh and
Kim(2003) classified virtual communities as either being
originated online or offline. The examples of on-line
originated virtual communities are newsgroups, game
sites, and various e-commerce sites while the examples of
off-line originated virtual communities are class forums
in universities, on-line alumni associations. The intra-
organizational or inter-organizational communities-of-
practice whose members knew one other and participated
in face-to face interactions before the virtual community
came into existence. They did the analysis of 172
members of 44 virtual communities and found that the
sense of virtual community is affected by the enthusiasm
of the communitys leaders, off-line activities available to
members, and enjoyability. These characteristics had a
stronger impact for members of virtual communities that
originated on-line than for those in communities that
originated off-line.
Ying-Feng Kuo(2003) discusses about service quality
of Virtual Community. According to him in order to
enhance satisfaction and loyalty of the users, the Virtual
Community websites needs to improve the dimension of
online quality and information safety and also extra
function and service should be provided. Gupta and
Kim(2004) investigated the factors which enhance
109
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
online customers relationship, commitment to the Virtual
Community from the balanced beliefs and feelings
perspective. They adapt the behavior model developed by
Fazio et al. (1978) and examines the roles of beliefs and
feelings of the customer in the formation of commitment
to a Virtual Community. This study then offers theoretical
reasoning for the balanced effects of customers beliefs
and feelings on enhancing the commitment to the Virtual
Community. They collected data through online survey
on the website of Urii.com(A Korean online store that
caters to mothers in relation to baby-care needs.) .Their
findings show that attitude, beliefs(functional usefulness
and social usefulness), and feelings(pleasure) were
significant predicator of relationship commitment.
Gupta et, al. (2006) emphasis on the transformation
process of a Virtual Community member into an online
customer. It provide insights into the usefulness of VCs
for commercial purposes apart from increasing sales.
Their result indicates that attitude towards Virtual
Community significantly influences commitment to
Virtual Community. Attitude towards and Commitment
to Virtual community significantly influence loyalty to
the vendor which influence intention to purchase from
vendor. Trusoy et, al.(2008) study the effect of word-of-
mouth (WOM) marketing on member growth at an
Internet social networking site and compare it with
traditional marketing vehicles. According to them ,social
networking site rely upon user-generated content to
attract and retain visitors. They obtain revenue primarily
from the sales of online display advertising and they
accumulate user information that may be valuable for
targeted marketing purposes. They develop model for the
acquisition of new member through word of mouth.
Gianiodis (2010) investigate the affect of social
networking technology on firm opportunity recognition.
They consider opportunity recognition as a meta-
construct consisting of opportunity discovery and
opportunity creation. They suggests that information
technology can be used an enabler of opportunity
recognition, as a mechanism to support and promote
opportunity discovery, through viral marketing, and
opportunity creation, through customer relationship
management. According to Regus (2010) Social
networking has become a mainstream business tool in
India with fully 52 percent of businesses having
successfully used social networks to win new business.
The most popular use of social networks is staying in
touch with business contacts; with 58 percent of
respondents globally use these networks. Thakur (2010)
has revealed that social networking has finally become a
mainstream business tool. This survey indicates that
organizations who have not yet ventured into the world of
social networking may be missing out on sizeable
business opportunities. The highest level of new
customer acquisition via social networking was reported
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS)
in the Netherlands (48 percent), India (52 percent),
Mexico (50 percent) and Spain (50 percent).In India 55
percent of small companies compared to the global 40
percent average had successfully found new customers
through social networks and 32 percent of small firms
actively devote marketing budget to this activity
III. RATIONALE
Social media has opened up a new opportunity, both for
the business and consumers, to interact with each other on
a real-time basis. With an estimated one-billion
membership, social media websites have become a
platform for corporations and consumers to interact with
each other in a lucid way. The impact of social media on
consumer behavior has been massive, and this is one of
the prime reasons why business houses are using it to
market their products extensively. Various industry
bigwigs have conducted researches and surveys to know
the impact of social media on consumer behavior, and it
has been found that consumers would like to have an
interactive relationship with a company, so that they can
easily pass on feedback, suggestions, and complaints.
Given the nature of social media, anything positive or
negative-that is being said about your product or company
is easily accessible to a global community of consumers,
which essentially means that your business and your
marketing strategy can be hailed or harmed in a matter of
hours. The individual consumers shopping behavior may
be affected and changed by the emergence of social
networks. This is backed by the observation that
numerous web-based social communities have allowed
consumers to share their personal experiences by writing
reviews, commenting and rating others reviews for many
years now. However, it also became clear that consumers
are more likely to believe recommendations from people
they know and trust, friends and family-members, rather
than strangers or recommender systems. This also
explains that social networks are driving the increasing
volume of traffic to retail sites and may become the entry
hub for ecommerce.
IV. OBJECTIVES
To study the factors which influence the impact of
Social Media on Consumer Behavior.
Does the factors influencing the impact of Social
Media on Consumer Behavior differ on the basis of
demographic variables (Age/Education)?
To compare the impact of Social Media on Consumer
Behavior on the basis of demographic variables
(Age/Education) between different Social
Networking Websites.
V. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Study:
110
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is an exploratory study to find out the factors have been used to illustrate the layout of the sample
influencing the impact of Social Media on Consumer population. The independent sample is being compared to
Behavior. The research aims to identify the factors measure the dependent variable impact of social media on
influencing the impact of Social Media on Consumer consumer behavior. The data was classified and tabulated
Behavior on the basis of demographic variables such as using MS-Excel. Also, an analysis of the data was done
Age, Education etc. And to compare the popularity using Mean and Standard Deviation.
between various Social Networking Websites such as Hypothesis
Google+, Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. This
Age:-
survey also indicates how often are the social networking
websites accessed and to what use they are put by the H01: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
users on the basis of demographic variables. Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group
of below 20 years and 21-40 years.
The Sample:
H02: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
A sample is a representative of the population. One of
Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group
the defining characteristics of the population is that they
of 21-40 years and above 41 years.
have access to social networking websites. The sample
size was 50 and all the respondents were a part of the H03: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
population being studied. The sample consists of Age and Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group
Education categories. Age is divided as Below 20 years, of above 41 years and below 20 years.
21-40 years and Above 41 years. Education is divided as Education:-
Under-Graduate, Graduate and Post-Graduate. H04: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
The Design: Consumer Behavior of the undergraduate and graduate
Dependent Variable: Impact of Social Media on respondents.
Consumer Behavior H05: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
Independent variable: Age and Education Consumer Behavior of the graduate and post-graduate
respondents.
Age/ Under- Graduate Post-
H06: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
Education Graduate Graduate
Consumer Behavior of the undergraduate and post-
Below graduate respondents.
20 yrs RESULT AND DISCUSSION
21-40 yrs Hypothesis Accepted
H01: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
Above Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group
41 yrs of below 20 years and 21-40 years.
Data Collection: Mean: Y1 (below 20) = 54.15385
Y2 (21-40) = 54.75
The data was collected through a self-developed
Std. dev: Y1 (below 20) = 6.269585
questionnaire which comprises of almost 15 questions.
Y2 (21-40) = 8.485281
The questions were based on nominal and interval scale.
Responses to all the questions were mandatory except the
Zcal= 0.4026 Zcal < Ztab
respondents name. The questionnaire was self-
administered, though the respondents were able to interact The null hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of
personally. For each statement of the questionnaire, the significance.
respondent was asked to indicate their perception. A 5- H05: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
point Likert Scale was used on which a score of 5 points Consumer Behavior of the graduate and post-graduate
was given for the answer Strongly Agree, 4 points was respondents.
given for the answer Partially Agree, 3 points was given Mean: Y1 (Grad) = 52.90909
for the answer Cant Say, 2 points was given for the Y2 (PG) = 54.15385
answer Partially Disagree and 1 point was given for the Std. dev: Y1 (Grad) = 1.414214
answer Strongly Disagree. Y2 (PG) = 8.485281
Data Analysis: Zcal= -1.04 Zcal < Ztab
On the data gathered, descriptive statistics including The null hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of
frequency analysis have been done to determine the significance.
demographics of the group sampled. Simple bar-diagrams
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS) 111
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H06: There is no significant impact of Social Media on The null hypothesis is not accepted at 5% level of
Consumer Behavior of the postgraduate and significance.
undergraduate respondents EXPLANATION: There is a significance impact of
Mean: Y1 (PG) = 53.61538 Social Media on Consumer Behavior on the respondents
Y2 (UG) = 54.15385 in the group of undergraduates and graduates. The
Std. dev: Y1 (PG) = 8.485281 Consumer Behavior of the respondents in the group of
Y2 (UG) = 1.414214 undergraduates is more affected by social media.
Zcal= 0.814 Zcal < Ztab VI. CONCLUSION
The null hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of
significance. To study the factors which influence the impact of
Social Media on Consumer Behavior?
Hypothesis Rejected
Product reviews by friends and colleagues (Bar number
H02: There is no significant impact of Social Media on
4) along with the promotion of Cash On delivery/ Buy
Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group
after u Try service of a product (Bar number 5) on a
of 21-40 years and above 41 years.
social networking website are the major factors which
Mean: Y1 (21-40) = 54.75 influence the buying decision of a customer.
Y2 (above 41) = 49.22222
Std. dev: Y1 (21-40) = 8.485281
Y2 (above 41) = 2.12132
Zcal= 7.531 Zcal >Ztab 250
204203
185 187182 191196
The null hypothesis is not accepted at 5% level of 200 168 175 173 175
165
significance. 157 155164
EXPLANATION: There is a significance impact of 150
Social Media on Consumer Behavior on the respondents
100
in the age group of 21-40 years and above 41 years. The
Consumer Behavior of the respondents in the age group 50
21-40 years is more affected by social media.
H03: There is no significant impact of Social Media on 0
Consumer Behavior on the respondents in the age group 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
of above 41 years and below 20 years.
Mean: Y1 (above 41) = 49.22222 Do the factors influencing the impact of Social Media
Y2 (below 20) = 54.15385 on Consumer Behavior differ on the basis of
Std. dev :Y1 (above 41) = 2.12132 demographic variables (Age/Education)?
Y2 (below 20) = 6.269585 The respondents of age group of 21-40 years and the
Zcal= 5.82 Zcal > Ztab respondents falling in the category of Post-Graduates are
The null hypothesis is not accepted at 5% level of mostly influenced by Social Media in their buying
significance. decisions.
EXPLANATION: There is a significance impact of Age
Social Media on Consumer Behavior on the respondents 60

in the age group of above 41 years and below 20 years.

The Consumer Behavior of the respondents in the age 50

group below 20 years is more affected by social media.

40

H04: There is no significant impact of Social Media on 30

Consumer Behavior of the undergraduate and graduate

20
respondents
Mean: Y1 (UG) = 54.15385 10
Percent

Y2 (Grad) = 52.90909
0
Std. dev: Y1 (UG) = 1.414214 < 20 Years 21-40 Years >41 Years
Y2 (Grad) = 1.414214
Age
Zcal= 2.54 Zcal > Ztab

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS) 112
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education [2] Armstrong, A. and Hagel III, J. (1996) The real
60
value of on-line communities, Harvard Business
Review, 74, 3, 134-141.
50 [3] Balasubramanian, S. and Mahajan V. (2001) The
economic leverage of the virtual community,
40
International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 5, 3,
30 103110.
[4] Blanchard, A. L., and Markus (2004) M. L. The
20
experienced sense of a virtual community:
10
Characteristics and processes, The DATABASE for
Percent

Advances in Information Systems (35:1), Winter, pp.

0
UG Graduate PG
65-79.
Education
[5] Gianiodis, Peter. Bosman,Lisa.(2010) The Effect of
Social Networking Technology on Firm Opportunity
SNW Recognition, Clemson University Department of
60 Management, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1555946
,February 19.
50

[6] Gupta, Sumeet ,Kim Hee-Woong (2004) Virtual

40
Community:Concepts, Implications, and Future
30 Research Directions, Proceedings of the Tenth
Americas Conference on Information Systems, New
20
York, New York, August
10 [7] Gupta, S., and Kim, H-W. (2004) Enhancing the
Percent

Commitment to Virtual Community: A Belief and

0
Orkut / G+ Facebook T witter
SNW
To compare the impact of Social Media on Consumer
Behavior on the basis of different Social Networking
Websites.
The buying decision of the respondents is much more
affected by Facebook than any other Social Networking
Website. Additionally, the continuous increase of the
amount of time people spend online directly affects their
behavior in sharing and interacting. Accordingly, we
reason that influence from social networks on individual
behavior may become even more important in the future.
We see strong tendencies how the individual consumers
shopping behavior may be affected and changed by the
emergence of social networks. This is backed by the
observation that numerous web-based social communities
have allowed consumers to share their personal
experiences by writing reviews, commenting and rating
others reviews for many years now. However, it became
also clear that consumers are more likely to believe
recommendations from people they know and trust,
friends and family-members, rather than strangers or
recommender systems.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] Anandya, Dudi (2010).The Direct and Indirect
Effect of Exchange to Build Customer Loyalty in
Social Network Sites, September
22,http://ssrn.com/abstract=1680754.
Linkedin Feeling Based Approach, In Proceedings of Twenty-
Fifth International Conference on Information
Systems, INFORMS Publishing: Washington, D.C.,
pp. 101-113.
[8] Hagel, J. and Armstrong, A. (1997) Net Gain:
Expanding Markets through Virtual Communities,
Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge.
[9] Koh, J., and Kim, Y-G. (2004) Sense of Virtual
Community: A Conceptual Framework and
Empirical Validation, International Journal of
Electronic Commerce (8:2), Winter, pp. 75-93.
[10] Kuo, Ying-Feng (2003) A study on service quality
of virtual community websites Total Quality
Management, Vol. 14, No. 4, 461473.
[11] Khoshoie, taraneh (2006). Stickiness in Virtual
Community. Department of Business Administration
and social science division of industrial marketing
and e-commerce,Tarbiat Moderes University Faculty
of Engineering and Department Industrial
Engineering Lulea University of Technology,
[12] Lazar, J., Tsao, R., and Preece, J. (1999) One Foot
in Cyberspace and the Other on the Ground: A Case
Study of Analysis and Design Issues in a Hybrid
Virtual and Physical Community. WebNet Journal:
Internet Technologies, Applications, and Issues, 1, 3,
49-57.
[13] Maharg, paul (2001) Negotiating the Web: Legal
Skills Learning in a Virtual Community
International Review Of Law Computers &
Technology, volume 15, no. 3, pages 345360,

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS) 113
 IJRMBSS I eISSN: 2321-9874 | ISSN: 2319-6998 I Vol. 2 I Issue 2 I Jun. 2014
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[14] Malhotra A., Gosain S. and Hars A. (1997)
Evolution of a Virtual Community -Understanding
design issues through a longitudinal study,
Proceedings of the Eighteenth International
Conference on Information Systems, Atlanta,
Georgia, United States.
[15] Preece, J. (2000) Online communities: Designing
usability, supporting sociability, John Wiley and
Sons, Chichester, UK.
[16] Romm, C.T., Pliskin, N. and Clarke, R.J. (1997)
Virtual Communities and Society: Toward an
Integrative Three Phase Model, International
Journal of Information Management, 17, 4, 261-270.
[17] Trusoy,Michael.,Buckin Randolph
E.,Pauwels,Keon H.,(2008) Effects of Word- of-
Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from
an Internet Social Networking Site, Marketing
Department, Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland
[18] Typaldos, Cynthia(2000) ,The 12 Principles of
Collaboration, www.typaldos.com/12
principles.htm.

___________________________________________
AUTHORS
Dr. Sourbhi Chaturvedi
(Professor-LNCT-MER Deptt.)
Flat No-103, Aashiyana Enclave,
Add- 14 A/A Scheme No-54,
Indore-452010
so_1919@yahoo.com
Contact No-9826726091

Rahul Barbar
Student MBA
4th Sem, SVITS Indore.
Add- 245/1 Nayapura,
M.P (452001)
mailrahul_y2j7@yahoo.com
Contact No- 9926668554

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Journal of Research in Management, Business and Social Sciences (IJRMBSS) 114